Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Study The Word Of God That His Story May Be Rewritten In Us

Do we really want to be led by the Holy Spirit? If so, the only way is to open our eyes, ears, and hearts to see God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in the love letter, known as the Word of God, that the Lord has given to us by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. For faith comes by hearing the Word of God. It is the manna, spiritual food, which is provided to nourish our souls. It is through His Word that we are guided and led into all truth. It is the lamp unto our feet by which He leads us upon the right path. It is His Word that keeps us from veering to the right or the left, our very present strength in resisting the temptations of this world. Otherwise, we may become easily seduced by any and every false teaching sent to lure us onto wrong paths in life.

We are to read and hide his Word in our hearts that we might be forewarned, forearmed and protected from the fiery darts of the devil, from our own deceitful nature, or our “old man”, that is our natural self before we became a new creation in Him. God is our fortress, our shield and buckler, protecting us from Satan who would seek to devour and destroy us. The more we study His word, the better equipped we become to discern the difference between good and evil, and become empowered to choose to be more Christ-like, that we may truly glorify God in all our ways.

His Word is one of the tools that He uses to melt and mold us more into His image. If we neglect so great a gift, or look upon it as just a collection of nice little stories written by mere men, then we have rejected the strength and guidance upon which we are to build our faith. To be rooted and grounded in His Word, is to have that rudder that keeps us steered in the right direction, just as a rudder of a ship keeps it heading toward its correct destination. For us, Believers and those who are seeking Him, He has provided His Word that we may be raised in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. He has said that His Word, inspired by His Holy Spirit, is for the express purpose of providing instruction, correction, and enlightenment for our eternal lives.

Our eternal life begins here on Earth, and leads either to our home in heaven, which He has prepared for us, or to an eternity in perpetual darkness and separation from Him forever. Neglecting the study of the Bible is as foolish as a carpenter going out to work with some of his most important tools missing from his tool belt. How can he expect to complete the job successfully without the proper equipment? If we are not rooted and grounded in His Word, our faith is merely built on the sinking sand of our own opinions, rather than the solid rock of the gospel of Jesus Christ. If we do not study and hide His Word in our hearts, we will be led astray like lost sheep by any false gospel, prophet, or gods that arise on the scene of life.

Man does not live by bread alone but by every word from the mouth of God. He draws us closer to Him when we seek to communicate with Him through His Word. How can we hear from Him if we never listen? How can He direct, guide, strengthen, and help us through the storms of life if we never open His Word and yield ourselves to instructions? How can we place our trust in Him if we never seek His assurance and advice? Let us not choose to pattern our lives in the image of man, but in the image of God the Father as He reveals Himself to us by the power of His Holy Spirit through His written Word, the Bible, and through His Living Word, Jesus Christ our Savior and Lord.

The Bible is a difficult book to read because it came from the one true God whose wisdom and knowledge is infinite. If man could read and understand the Bible as he does other books, then the Bible would just be another “natural” book, and could not be the Word of God. Since the Bible is from God, and therefore spiritual, before reading it one must first be born again and filled with the Holy Spirit. Without His guidance we can not understand the wisdom, or knowledge, of God. (I Cor. 2)

We are encouraged to let the “mind of Christ” dwell in us richly. We are also instructed to renew our minds by the “washing of the water of the Word.” How can we expect to truly learn day by day to be more like Christ if we do not trust in His Word to teach us to do so? Jesus is the Living Word and is revealed to us by His written Word. To let His will be done in our lives, we must allow the Holy Spirit to rewrite His story within us that our story will be a reflection of His story. Only then can His story be seen in our lives that we may help to draw others to Him. For it is when others can see Jesus in us that they are then drawn to have what we have- the Living Christ that draws all men unto Him that they too may have the peace that passes understanding and eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ. Oh that all would know, as the song says,

“He touched me, Oh He touched me,
And oh the joy that floods my soul!
Something happened and now I know
He touched me and made me whole.”

If God is for us, who can be against us? Nothing can separate us from the love of God. He never leaves us or forsakes us. It is not He that walks away from our side, but we who walk away from His side. By our own choice, we are either drawing closer to Him each day, or we are walking away from Him either by commission or omission. We are either hungering or thirsting to be filled daily by His Spirit and Word, or we are dining at the trough of the ways of the world that will never be able to quench our hunger or thirst.

When we are tempted to feel like “Where are you Lord and, if you are truly in control, why do you allow bad things to happen in my life?”, our first response should be to turn to Him in prayer and turn to His Word for assurance, peace, and direction. He knows the beginning from the end, while we just happen to be in the middle and can’t see the whole picture of our lives as He does. You know His Word tells us that there will be trials and tribulations in our lives, but He will always be with us and help us to get through them. He did not say that we would be spared any pain or suffering in this life. Look at Jesus. Was He not the Son of God? Yet He was not spared from enduring the ultimate pain of separation from His Father, and received the punishment for all of our sins when He died upon the Cross.

Yes, He set the ultimate example of what it means to yield to the will of the Father. He asked His Father, if possible, could He be spared this cup, but then He said “not my will be done, but yours Father.” If we trust in Him, we can be assured that He can take even those negative things in our lives to work out for the good, not to glorify ourselves, but to the glory of God Almighty. Our God reigns. We must choose to let Him reign in our lives and stop trying to put ourselves on the throne. A right relationship to and fellowship with the Lord should be our ultimate goal. May His Word live in us richly for it is far more precious than any silver or gold.

0
comments:

Post a Comment

Email Newsletter

About Us

The Spirit’s Nest Ministries was founded, in 1979, to defend and spread the Word of God.In 2006 our message came to include the Christian roots of our country.

NO DONATIONS PLEASE

This website and our writings are part of our tithe to the Lord.

We want our offerings to be free for everyone.

As with all of our writings, everything must be compared to the Bible, for verification. Unless otherwise noted, all Bible references are from the King James Version. Sometimes we may change the King James wording for clarification or closer adherence to the original languages.

We invite the sharing of our writings. Proper credit would be appreciated, but bot mandatory.